


Observer

by lilnepp



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: "free them", "no" i reply. they will never be free from my angsty grip, Angst, F/M, Someone faintly from the back as I write this: "let them live", but lets pretend it does just for today, canonverse, ghost - Freeform, i guess?, idk if kardia cathedral has a graveyard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-17
Updated: 2016-02-17
Packaged: 2018-05-21 06:41:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6041961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilnepp/pseuds/lilnepp
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An observer was something she had always been. Levy was quite proud of this; being able to decode people as they walked in the door, for the most part. She could read and analyse every individual person she spoke to as if they were a book character, and could see how others felt from many point of views. It was something she took an immense amount of pride in.</p><p>Currently, Gajeel's tears were something she was very unable to decode, and it terrified her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Observer

An observer was something she had always been. Levy was quite proud of this; being able to decode people as they walked in the door, for the most part. She could read and analyse every individual person she spoke to as if they were a book character, and could see how others felt from many point of views. It was something she took an immense amount of pride in.

Currently, Gajeel's tears were something she was very unable to decode, and it terrified her.

She had been trying to get his attention for at least three days. Levy wasn't entirely sure what it was she had done - the last week had been little more than a blur to her - but to make Gajeel Redfox, Mr _Steel-Emotions_ himself, cry, it must have been pretty awful.

"I'm sorry." She muttered again, sitting across from him at their shared house. He didn't bother looking up.

"I said," Levy began, louder and more assertive this time. "That I'm sorry."

When there was no reply once again, she furrowed her eyebrows, feeling her eyes sting as they welled up with warm tears, ready to spill over. She couldn't recall doing anything to hurt his feelings, but she still felt horrible nonetheless.

Pantherlily was nowhere to be found, either, but the last time Levy saw him he hadn't bothered speaking to her. She knew that Lily and Gajeel had a strong bond of sorts, but never in her wildest dreams had she imagined that even _Lily_ of all people would start ignoring her.

Come to think of it, when she was up at the guild, no one would talk to her. Was it some cruel joke? If it was something Gajeel had convinced them to get in on, she didn't think it was very funny. She had been feeling left out. Even Jet and Droy, her two best friends who had sworn to protect her, weren't speaking to her.

"Gajeel? Did you hear me?"

There was some light pitter-patter of rain against the glass window pane behind the chair Levy had sat herself in, and it was getting heavier by the minute. Someone must have really upset Juvia, because she hadn't seen it rain so hard since the time Gray left for a mission without her. It wasn't entirely her fault; she had been with Lucy on another mission only a day before and was resting up at home while Gray had gone and picked a neatly tucked-away piece of paper hidden on the board.

"Gajeel."

Said man was picking at his nails, staring emotionlessly down at the enamel on his fingers. Gajeel was sat horizontally on the loveseat at the other end of the room, long legs swung over one armrest while his head rested against the other. He had his guitar resting on the floor next to him along with a couple empty beer bottles and one half-full one sitting upright just within his reach.

He would probably say it was half-empty, but Levy had always tried to get him to see the positive side to everything. Even with things as small as literal half-full-half-empty drinks.

"I'm speaking to you."

She studied his face, which no longer had tears rolling down it but instead was tear-stained. She could only remember a few occasions where Gajeel had cried in front of her, and one was because he didn't have a cat. Perhaps, with that scenario in mind, it wasn't as bad as she was making it out to be in her head. Gajeel crying, however, didn't ring positive bells in her mind. If anything, they rang alarms. Dangerous alarms.

"It's been three days, Gajeel. If you don't acknowledge me, at least, I'm going to pack my stuff and leave. I'm tired of this."

When there was no response, Levy stood hesitantly.

"Fine."

She moved around the coffee table they'd built together (of course, it was made with iron mostly, so Gajeel had done most of the work, but he would insist it was all her doing. Besides, she'd helped supply the wood, and he said that that was a big enough help in itself) and brushed past the loveseat, accidentally bumping her hip into the corner. Gajeel looked spooked for a moment, sitting upright.

Levy felt hopeful for a moment before he laid back down, eyes slightly wide. He'd gone right back to ignoring her very existence.

"I'm serious. I'm leaving." She warned once again, feeling a little reluctant to follow through with her claims. She did love Gajeel, and she did love living with him and Pantherlily, even if they did have their rough patches occasionally.

 _But this is no 'rough patch',_ Levy reminded herself. _This is cruel._

She walked through the open archway and entered a long hallway with many doors lined along it (Guest bedrooms and studies, as well as whole mini-libraries and storage for scrap metals. Even Pantherlily's own room was somewhere amongst the mess of doorways) and another open archway at the other end of the hall. Levy moved sullenly towards the archway, and when she reached it, she was led into the kitchen and dining room area.

It seemed normal, except for one thing; the boxes upon boxes upon boxes stacked all around, some labelled _'Donate to Library'_ and _'Burn'_. There was one or two with _'Keep',_ but she assumed for the most part they were books and keepsakes.

He was going to throw her stuff out before she had a chance to even pack!

That did it. She was suddenly flushed with anger and disgust, that she stormed back down the hallway, making sure to pick up a small box before she did so, and stood in the middle of the living room once again.

"What the hell did you do with all my stuff?!" She demanded, standing in front of him, amber eyes ablaze. He still was pretending she didn't exist.

"Why did you pack all my stuff?" She reworded, studying the box in her hands. It was labelled _'Keep'_ , but was taped so heavily that she'd need a boxcutter just to get a peek, but Levy didn't particularly feel like looking nor holding metal at that moment.

"Gajeel."

No response, unsurprisingly.

"I'm sick of this fucking _joke_ or whatever it is that you have everybody else in on. It's not funny anymore."

Nothing.

"Are you even listening to me? You're hurting my _fucking feelings_."

Not a sound.

"You're..." She paused, setting the cardboard box on the coffee table. "You're breaking my _heart,_ Gajeel..."

That sent her over the edge, pain and hurt searing in her chest like a burning flame. She began to bawl, sobs wracking her chest as she sat at the foot of the cast-iron coffee table, bringing her knees up to her chest. Her cries were noisy and whiny, but she didn't care. Levy was confused and upset and angry and all these different emotions at once, and it hurt to think about.

Gajeel moved but paused for a moment, stretching as if his girlfriend were not having the cry of her life on the floor, before standing. He grabbed his rugged coat from a metal coat-rack just inside the archway, and turned left.

Levy watched through blurred eyes as he disappeared through the archway, realising that he was leaving, and clamoured to follow him. She would tell him that she was fucking upset as hell and to give her a solid reason for ignoring her. Boy, he would get a real speaking to that would shut him up for days when she got her hands on him.

Levy didn't bother grabbing a coat, mostly because hers had been moved, possibly shoved into a box, and because she didn't really feel cold despite the rain.

Upon opening the front door, she caught sight of him on the footpath not too on the other side of the road, heading up another street. She closed and locked the door behind her and prepared to dash out into the rain after him. What the neighbours would think, she had no idea; probably that she was such a silly woman for running out into the rain in a tank top and skirt, with only some measly armbands to protect her.

It was getting close to sunset, she could tell, because the rain which was so heavy only minutes ago was letting up, making way for some orange-golden beams to shine down on the wet neighbourhood, reflecting off of the shingled roofs and the light-coloured brick and panelling of each individual house.

She followed closely behind him for about ten minutes as he walked through Magnolia, before coming to a stop at Kardia Cathedral.

_Why here?_

It was only partly cloudly then, and there was a glorious pinky-orange hue to the sky that Levy knew Reedus would love, but she was focused on where Gajeel was going. He walked around the big church, into the cemetary.

Levy hesitated before following him, feeling something pulse in the back of her head.

_Wait a minute._

She had only now noticed the bouquet, albeit small, bright and colourful in his hands.

_No._

_No, no, no, no_.

She ran out to him and tried to grab his hand or arm, only for hers to fall right through. Levy's eyes widened in horror.

_NO. NO. NO._

"'M sorry, Shrimp,"

She looked up to him, as he paused in front of a gravestone.

_Oh Mavis, anything but this..._

Levy didn't care that she was crying now, because the memories of the past week suddenly engulfed her in a whirlwind of emotion.

She remembered everything. She remembered the big group mission that she'd taken with Team Natsu and Lisanna, and Gajeel and Juvia. She remembered that they'd split up. She remembered coming to the door of a ruins, and Gajeel broke the sedimented rock apart. She could remember the waves splashing up against the ruins entrance.

"'M sorry that I couldn't protect you. From, y'know..."

_I feel sick._

She remembered Lucy telling them how dangerous that area was. She remembered Gajeel tugging her hand through the entrance to the ruins. She remembered not only the stunning and lively rock pools they'd found in the ruins, but also the creature inside.

_Make it stop._

She remembered being a little too loud. She remembered Gajeel pushing her out of the way.

_Please._

She remembered the feeling of tentacles wrapping around her legs, then shaking her like a ragdoll.

_What have I done?_

She remembered hearing something crack when she was slammed into a wall. She remembered someone shouting ' _Shrimp!_ ' and she remembered falling onto the ground. But that was all she could remember, and whilst the answer was hazy before, she knew now.

Levy turned towards the gravestone that Gajeel's eyes were glued to.

_Levy McGarden_  
_x767 -_

She couldn't bring herself to read the rest, instead turning her head and letting out a sharp cry.

For all she could observe, perhaps she was not the quickest after all. She had only thought about herself for the past week, not daring to notice the people around her and how solemn and somber they all acted. It's not like they weren't talking to her by choice; they didn't even know she was in the room with them.

She knew, deep down, that it had happened; she had just chosen to forget it for as long as she possibly could. Following Gajeel, however, had brought the memory front-and-centre in her brain. Levy knew she couldn't be mad at him for packing her things away into boxes and ignoring her.

Because Levy McGarden was not being ignored.

Levy McGarden had died a week beforehand.

She just hadn't accepted it until now.


End file.
